Upgrades ground mosquito plane

Residents should hear the buzz of the airplane putting out mosquito chemicals by the first of July. After new laws went into effect by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the airplane was grounded to be updated.

Residents should hear the buzz of the airplane putting out mosquito chemicals by the first of July. After new laws went into effect by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the airplane was grounded to be updated.

“We are completely overhauling the airplane,” Daniel Masingale, director of Stuttgart Mosquito Control, said. “We have been needing to make these changes.”

The new laws went into effect in November and with that came the need to purchase new equipment to become compliant. After the bond issue was passed the department was able to put the new equipment out for bid. Bids will open at Stuttgart City Hall on June 10 and June 13.

The new upgrades will include a new GPS system that will allow the plane to fly more accurately, a monitoring system that will help with drift control and wing-mounted booms will be installed instead of the tail booms that were in place.

“Next week we will know the cost,” Masingale said.

Once back up the airplane will fly the town and also a 1-mile radius outside of town. This will coincide with the regular application of chemicals coming from the trucks, which was recently beefed up.

“We are putting something new out,” Masingale said. “We have changed chemicals in the trucks.”

This started during Tuesday night’s application. On May 1 the department was spraying every other night and have recently started to spray rice fields that connect with the city.

During Tuesday night’s Stuttgart City Council meeting Councilmember Ruth Ann Trice said she was recently embarrassed due to the high number of mosquitoes she encountered in town.

“It was embarrassing when we had out-of-town guests,” she said. “We can’t go in and out of the house at all.”

But when temperatures heat up and the air becomes humid and flooding is taking place on surrounding rice fields the mosquito population is bound to increase.

“It’s that time of year, we have more hatching off,” Masingale explained. “Sadly, we won’t be able to control every mosquito in every yard and the citizens of Stuttgart are going to get bitten.”

But with the trucks on the street and once the airplane is back in service the Stuttgart Office of Mosquito Control feels it can shrink the numbers of the pesky insects that call Stuttgart home.

To help control mosquitoes, the Stuttgart Mosquito Control Office offers the following tips for homeowners:

• Regularly empty anything on the property that holds water. This includes dishes under flowerpots, tire swings, buckets, an old Frisbee and dog toys.

• Regularly change the water in anything that normally holds water. This includes pet dishes, wading pools, birdbaths, water troughs or fountains.

• Clear rain guttering and downspouts of leaves and debris so water doesn’t stand.

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• Correct areas that have standing water after rain. Fill in low places with soil, keep ditches clear of leaves and debris, aerate your lawn and fill in hollow tree stumps with cement or sand.

• Make sure outside faucets aren’t leaky, creating a constant puddle.

• Do not over water lawns as puddles will surely attract mosquitoes.

• Keep grass short and shrubbery trimmed around the house where mosquitoes may rest.